For decades, dry cleaning plants have relied on the chemical perchlorethylene rather than soap and water to clean clothes.
But the chemical has some serious drawbacks.
If not used correctly, it can cause health problems...and environmental damage.
But recently, more healthy alternatives to perchlorethylene have arisen.
And some Granite Staters are making the move to what's being called green cleaning.
NHPR correspondent Jessica Laferriere reports.
Walk into any dry cleaning plant and you?ll see, hear, and smell just about the same things.
The sight of neatly hung shirts and pants, pipes and presses, laundry baskets and hangers.
The sound of steam, conveyer belts and washing machines.
Then there?s the smell. That sweet, familiar, chemical odor.
That smell comes from Perchloreoethylene.
People in the business call it Perc.
It's the petroleum based solvent used to dry clean clothes.
And like alot of solvents, it evaporates quickly.
That's the reason for the smell.
Judy Wachsmuth owns East Side Dry Cleaners in Manchester.
She says the odor doesn't bother her.
And she brags that the industry has gone to great lengths to reduce the amount of Perc that gets into the air.
JUDY-A:
.......that?s what?s in that machine there. It?s completely enclosed so the Perc does stay in there. We don?t lose a lot of Perc. Your older machines, some of the Perc would have evaporated into the air but these new machines, they?re very insulated.
And employee, Melodee Parent, says the machines are constantly inspected.
MELODEE-A:
It?s a weekly inspection, full inspection. It?s a daily inspection of all the seals. We are inspected by the insurance, by the state. They never let you know, you know they show up. And it?s at least once a year.
The reason for all the inspections is that Perc can cause some health problems if the exposure is high enough.
David Deegan is with the Environmental Protection Agency.
DAVID:
With some elevated exposure some of the possible health effects can include irritation to the eyes or skin, fatigue or headaches, nausea. Some of the most significant health effects from long term high exposure can include things like liver damage.
Exposure risks are highest for people who work with the solvent day in and day out.
Deegan says the average dry cleaning customer needn't worry.
But Perc isn't just a workplace health and safety hazard.
Rudy Cartier, with New Hampshire's Department of Environmental Services, says if not disposed of correctly, Perc can also be an environmental hazard.
RUDY-B:
It can get into ground water. We have had situations before where there has been remediations done on dry cleaning operations that the Perc either went into the floor drain in the ground underneath or it was spilled outside.
However, Cartier adds that overall use of Perc is going down.
The International Fabricare Institute, an industry trade organization says it's been working for nearly two decades to help dry cleaners reduce Perc emissions.
William Fisher is IFI's CEO.
BILL4:
Two years ago we received a national award from the EPA for our work in reducing the use of the solvent in the industry. Our industry has got to almost a 97% drop in our emissions to the environment since 1987.
One reason the use of Perc has dropped is that some drycleaners are finding alternatives.
One called Wetcleaning, uses a highly controlled water-based cleaning process.
Another uses a liquid CO2 which proponents say can be easily recycled.
A third alternative is produced by a company called., Green Earth.
It cleans clothes with a silicone based solvent..
ED-B:
If it is dropped on the ground it breaks down to basically sand and water. It?s the same product you?ll find in the base of most of your cosmetics, deodorants, even some lipsticks.
Ed Fuller owns Fuller?s Signal Street Dry Cleaning in Rochester, New Hampshire.
Walk into Fuller?s and you?ll see all the things one usually finds at a drycleaners.
The one thing you won?t find is the smell of Perc.
It's not in the air.
It's not in the clothes.
Fuller switched to the Green Earth process five years ago.
ED-G:
We?ve noticed the change in the odor. No chemical smell anymore. The customers noticed that immediately. It?s also helped us with our production and it?s also produced a better quality dry cleaning product in the long run for the consumer.
Fuller also claims the process protects clothes from the shrinkage that can occasionally happen at traditional dry cleaners.
But the process takes a bit longer.
ED-J:
Our loads take somewhere between 50 minutes to an hour to go through while Perc cleaning is about 30, 30 to 40.
But Fuller says the extra time doesn't seem to have hurt his business.
In fact, he says, his business has actually improved.
Part of the reason is that his is the only Perc-free dry cleaning plant in New Hampshire.
EDCUST:
We have people that come from Durham and other areas of the state in order to get their clothes cleaned by us. Basically Exeter and Portsmouth area is our biggest customers that come to us.
Despite Fuller's claims of increased business, alternatives to dry cleaning with Perc have a long way to go before becoming the norm.
According to the International Fabricare Institute, only about 2% of the 36,000 dry cleaning plants across the country are using alternatives to Perc.
IFI's CEO William Fisher says the industry group encourages its members to look at other technologies.
But Fisher says IFI has yet to find a product that performs as well as Perc.
BILL:
There has been a gradual, actually a pretty modest, shift away from Perc by some of our members. But in general that is not because they feel Perc is unsafe, it?s because frankly that they?re tired of getting beaten up by the media.
For NHPR News, this is Jessica LaFerriere.
